User:Acmckenney/student draft of Sold

Characters

 * Lakshimi, a thirteen year old farm girl in Nepal, is the narrator and protagonist of the novel Sold. When the monsoons come and her family’s crops are destroyed, she is sold into sex slavery by her stepfather.
 * Ama, Lakshimi’s mother, is described as a typical village wife. She bears her family’s struggles by being the only working adult in their household, but she still manages to be beautiful, at least in her daughter’s eyes, “My ama, with her crow-black hair braided...her cinnamon skin, and her ears hung with the joyful noise of tinkling gold, to me, is more lovely.”
 * Stepfather, a lazy gambler, is Ama’s second husband in the novel. He spends his days at the teashop gambling and conversing with the old men and sees no value in Lakshimi. Stepfather is always willing to spend the family’s earnings on unnecessary selfish items for himself.
 * Auntie Bimla, described as a modern women by Lakshimi, takes Lakshimi on a long journey into the city where the naive farm girl thinks she is going to work as a maid.
 * Uncle Husband, described as a “slapping man”, takes Lakshimi across the border to the place where she is to work. While on their journey, he orders her to call him husband, probably because he didn’t want to attract any negative attention towards them. After he drops Lakshimi off at her destination,the Happiness House, she never sees him again.
 * Mumtaz, the owner of the Happiness House, is portrayed as a cruel and selfish woman. She oversees all the girls and “manages” their debts. Mumtaz is know for her ruthless punishments such as locking girls up for weeks, or putting chili peppers in their private parts. She instills fear in every inhabitant of the Happiness House.
 * Shahanna, Lakshimi’s first friend at the Happiness House, is a girl with “teardrop eyes and deep brown skin, like the hide of a nut” . Shahanna is from Lakshimi’s country and helps her get accustomed to her new life. In the novel they become best friends, sticking together to survive Mumtaz’s wrath. Shahanna is taken away when the police raid the Happiness House because Mumtaz was late on her bribes to them.
 * Pushpa, a “coughing woman”, is one of Lakshimi’s roommates in the novel. Pushpa came to work for Mumtaz when her husband died. She has a baby girl and an eight year old son. Her illness gets her and her children kicked out of the house by Mumtaz who feels Pushpa is a waist of her money.
 * Shilpa, the “aging bird girl”, is Mumtaz’s spy. Her character is described as having “the reed-thin body of a girl and the hollow cheeks of an old woman. She is, under the folds of her yellow dress, frail as a baby bird.” Shilpa is at the Happiness House of her own volition. Shilpa is also an alcoholic.
 * Anita, The “half frowning girl”, is one of Lakshimi’s roommates. In the novel, Anita is also from Lakshimi’s and Shahanna’s country. Once she ran away but the goonda, men who work for Mumtaz, caught her, beat her, and returned her to the Happiness House. They are the reason her face is lopsided. It’s hard to read Anita sometimes because of her aloof manner, but she and Lakshimi become friends towards the end of the novel.
 * Harish, The David Beckham boy, is Pushpa’s eight year old son. He is obsessed with David Beckham and soccer. He goes to school everyday and comes home to the Happiness House. In the novel Lakshimi is envious of Harish because he gets to live a semi-normal life and she doesn’t. After he catches her looking at his book, Harish offers to teach Lakshimi English and Hindi. Harish runs errands for the girls and their customers at night. Sometimes he earns a few rupees. “a boy of about eight comes in and flings a backpack in the corner. He has hair that sticks up like the tassels on a cornstalk and knees as knobby as a baby goats.”
 * Street Boy, a tea vendor, Comes to the Happiness House everyday to sell tea to the girls. He flirts with them but doesn’t sleep with them. At first, Lakshimi is ashamed to be seen in the Happiness House by him, but when he starts giving her gifts of food, they form a bond. Unfortunately, he is given a new route, and they never see each other again. Lakshimi never learns this character’s name.
 * Monica, one of the highest earning characters in the Happiness house, has almost paid off her debt. She also has a very short temper. She has a daughter at her home who she’s paying school fees for. Monica says the people will thank and honor her and Lakshimi when they get home for sending money. When Monica returns home, she is not greeted with honor, but run out of her own village and comes back to the Happiness House. After a while, she is thrown out because she caught the “virus”.
 * The American, an undercover cop in the novel, comes to Lakshimi as a customer, but when they to her room, asks her questions such as “do you want to leave this place?”. He ends up coming later with American police to save Lakshimi.

Reception
Kirkus reviews commented that “McCormick provides readers who live in safety and under protection of the law with a vivid window into a harsh and cruel world.” Booklist agreed, saying Sold is ,“An unforgettable account of sexual slavery as it exists now.” Booklist commented that the, “The brutality and cruelty are ever present...but not sensationalized.” It also commemorated its,“Beautiful prose and free verse that remains true to the child’s viewpoint.” Kirkus review noted that, “Sold focuses on the essential question of whether it is possible to trust when all that one has trusted has been proven untrustworthy.”